‎Brazil News

Former president Jair Bolsonaro. Credit: Isac Nóbrega/PR

The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) resumes this Tuesday (17/10), from 7pm, the joint trial of three Judicial Electoral Investigation Actions (Aijes) against former president Jair Bolsonaro and his candidate for vice on the ticket , former Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto. The trial began and was suspended last Tuesday (10/10).

 

The three actions point to abuse of political power in carrying out live broadcasts at the Palácio da Alvorada (official residence of the President of the Republic) and at the Palácio do Planalto (headquarters of the federal government) to present electoral proposals. One action, in particular, alleges that Bolsonaro held a press conference on the Planalto premises to inform his new political allies for the second round and advertise in favor of his campaign, using the public building's furniture.

 

The resumption of the trial will take place with the reading of the vote of the rapporteur, the General Inspector of Electoral Justice, Minister Benedito Gonçalves. Next, ministers Raul Araújo, Floriano de Azevedo Marques, Ramos Tavares, Cármen Lúcia, Nunes Marques and Alexandre de Moraes will vote.

 

 

In total, 17 lawsuits were filed against Bolsonaro for alleged irregularities in the 2022 elections. Of these, he was convicted in one, three are still on trial this Tuesday and the rest are in progress.

 

In June, the former president was condemned by the TSE, by 5 votes to 2, to ineligibility for eight years. At the trial, the ministers understood that there was abuse of political power and misuse of the media in a meeting with ambassadors at the Palácio do Planalto, in which Bolsonaro attacked Brazilian electronic voting machines.

 

Remember the beginning of the trial

Last Tuesday (10/10), the trial of the actions began with the reading of the report by Minister Benedito Gonçalves, followed by the presentation of the arguments of the prosecution and defense and concluded with a statement from the Electoral Attorney General's Office.

 

When starting to read the report, Minister Gonçalves explained that the three Aijes are being judged together for discussing a common topic: whether the Planalto and Alvorada palaces can be used to hold electoral lives and events broadcast by media outlets and internet.

 

The authors of the actions argue that the legislation prohibits the use of public goods available to office holders when it comes to campaign activities and acts of a public nature. Lawyer Walber de Moura Agra, representative of the PDT, states that there was a “clear use of public assets” to win votes and claims that government acts were mixed with campaign acts “to interfere in the electoral process in a non-republican way”.

 

Jair Bolsonaro's defense, however, maintained that the use of the palaces took place on a regular basis, within the limits permitted by law. And he emphasizes that, since re-election is permitted, the use of the residence's rooms to exercise freedom of expression is valid.

 

During his oral argument, Tarcísio Vieira, the former president's lawyer, denied the thesis that the recording location of the lives carried symbolism. “The meeting [with governors] took place outside the Palace. In the images, no symbol of the Republic appears, there is no symbolism at all. There were no electoral gains, nor was the autonomy of the candidates violated. What the law prohibits is the continuous, real, concrete use of the state apparatus in favor of candidacies.”

 

Paulo Gonet Branco, deputy electoral attorney, stated that the Electoral Attorney General's Office ruled that the Aijes were unfounded. Gonet Branco argued that the evidence is insufficient, especially in a context in which even more evident harm is required because it is an election with a continental proportion, with almost 150 million voters, and because of the position of President of the Republic.

 

For the Electoral Attorney General's Office, the records also lack an estimate of the cost of holding the lives, making it impossible to assess whether this expense was sufficient to vitiate the electoral process.

 

Aijes are processed under numbers 0601212-32, 0600828-69 and 0601665-27